Fewer pupils expelled from schools

Fewer disruptive pupils were sent out of school for bad behaviour last year in the first fall in the number of expulsions this decade.

Parents had less luck overturning expulsions, as there were fewer appeals, of which less were successful, in 2002-3 compared with the year before, official figures showed.

But despite the fall in successful appeals, the Department for Education and Skills statistics revealed that, in more than seven out of 10 cases parents were victorious, schools that had expelled unruly children were forced to take them back.

The figures were published as a Cambridge University report for the National Union of Teachers said that conditions in comprehensives were dire, chiefly because of the debilitating effect of bad behaviour on teaching.

There were 9,290 expulsions from primary, secondary and special schools in England last year, down 3% from the 2001-2 total of 9,535.

Last year's figure was 24% down on the 1997-8 peak of 12,298.

Secondary schools accounted for 82% of the expulsions and 14-year-olds were the age group most likely to behave badly enough to get themselves ejected.

Only 18% of those ordered to go were girls.

The number of appeals by parents to local education authority panels fell from 1,125 in 2001-2 to 1,074 in 2002-3.

Of these, 209 went in parents' favour, down from 259, meaning the proportion that were successful dropped to 21.1% from 24.4%.